A team of fifty colleagues from Ortho Clinical Diagnostics in Bridgend held an epic challenge this month to help raise vital funds for research and awareness of heart and circulatory diseases which affect around 340,000 people in Wales.
The 2021 Ortho PENTEN took place on 9th October and raised over £8,200 for the British Heart Foundation.
Each year the team organise the challenge, which involves cycling and walking from their Pencoed base to Tenby. A total of 20 cyclists and 30 walkers took part this year. The team committed to fundraising for the BHF each year in memory of friends they have lost to heart and circulatory diseases.
Senior Scientist Sarah Davies says,
“This past year has been extremely difficult for us all in terms of socialising and social distancing due to the COVID 19 Pandemic. Many charities have been extremely hard hit by a lack of fundraising, and the team at Ortho are acutely aware in this respect. The COVID Pandemic led to the cancellation of PENTEN 2020, both the bike ride and the highly successful walk. Therefore PENTEN 2021 has been resurrected with the aim of raising as much money as possible for this worthy cause.”
Jayne Lewis, Fundraising Manager for the BHF, said:
“I would like to congratulate the whole team for their phenomenal fundraising efforts. The BHF will use the money raised from this cycle ride and walk to power our life-saving research. I would also like to thank everyone who helped, supported and donated.
“Thanks to their efforts, we can enable scientists to carry out their work, finding new ways to prevent, treat and cure heart and circulatory diseases.”
Heart and circulatory diseases cause more than 160,000 deaths each year in the UK. Around twice as many people are living with heart and circulatory diseases in the UK than with cancer and Alzheimer’s disease combined. The BHF is the UK’s biggest independent funder of heart and circulatory disease research in the UK.
There’s still time to support the group’s fundraising efforts at: https://www.justgiving.com/team/orthoridersandwalkers2021
